In the sermon titled 'The God of Hope', Jason Dohm explores Romans 15:13, focusing on God's role as a source and object of hope. Dohm emphasizes that hope in the New Testament is a confident expectation rather than wishful thinking. He explains that God fulfills promises made to the Jews and Gentiles, uniting all people under one shepherd, Jesus. The sermon highlights how Paul uses 'wish prayers' to express desires and call upon God, urging believers to rely on the Holy Spirit for joy and peace. Dohm encourages believers to use God's titles in prayer to strengthen faith, and he outlines how faith is the fertile soil for joy and peace. The sermon concludes with practical applications, urging believers to influence their spiritual life through prayer and to reflect on how shedding fears and insecurities can lead to a bolder life in Christ.

The sermon text is Romans chapter 15 verse 13. I'll be reading 7 through 13. Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written. For this reason I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name." And again he says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.

And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, laud him, all you peoples. And again Isaiah says, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The title of the sermon this morning is The God of Hope, just lifting a title for God right out of the verse. We're only in one single verse this week.

We don't do that very often, But I breathe a sigh of relief every time we're preaching on one single verse because I don't feel like I have to rush through a single thing. We can have a shorter than normal sermon and I don't have to try to jam it into the time slot. So I've really been looking forward to this. In our last text, Paul instructed us that Jesus came to fulfill the promises made to the Jews. So you know God made all these promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants.

And Paul is instructing us that Jesus came to fulfill all of those promises and also his promises to bring every other tribe, tongue, people, and nation into his people. To not only be good and faithful to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also to reach into every other nation on earth and to just bring them into His people. The last time I preached, James preached last week, but the last time I preached I quoted Jesus in John chapter 10 verse 16. Here's what Jesus says in John chapter 10 verses 16, verse 16, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd." So Jesus there in John chapter 10 is teaching his disciples, these descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he's preparing them that their ministry after he dies and is raised from the dead and ascends into heaven, that their ministry is actually going to be a global ministry.

It's not going to be restricted to the boundaries of Israel, but he has other sheep that are not of the fold of Israel. But there are others outside this fold that will hear his voice and he's going to make us all into one sheep fold and he's going to be our one shepherd. To prove that this was not a new plan, that this was always God's eternal plan, a plan from before the earth was ever formed in fashion, Paul quoted four Old Testament texts representing each portion of Old Testament scripture. So it's not missing anywhere. Is it in the law?

Yes, it's in the law. He quotes Deuteronomy. Is it in the histories? Yes, he quotes 2 Samuel. Is it in the writings?

The Jews would call it the writings, but that would be Psalms, Proverbs, books like that. Yes, it is there. He quotes Psalms. And Is it in the prophets? Yes, it's in the prophets.

So he concludes by quoting from Isaiah 11. Look back just one verse to verse 12. And again, Isaiah says, there shall be a root of Jesse. Jesse is going to spring up from this one that's being spoken of. Later in the chapter it says, and a branch of Jesse.

So he's both the source of Jesse and comes from Jesse. How can that be? You have to have a God man for that, but I digress. There shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. In him the Gentiles shall hope." So he's proving that this is God's eternal plan to bring every tribe tongue people and nation to be part of this sheep fold under one shepherd, Jesus being the great shepherd.

And he says this one will be the hope of the Gentiles. Now, he's writing to Gentiles, not just Gentiles, I think the church at Rome was a mixed church, but it certainly had Gentiles. It was certainly in a Gentile city. He's writing to the Gentiles and he's writing to them about their hope, so he stops. He just quoted Isaiah 11 verse 10 talking about their hope, the hope of Romans, and he just stops there to develop this thought of the hope of the Gentiles, and this is very sweet.

In this single verse that we have as the scope for the sermon today, verse 13. Paul expresses a desire and he calls on God to fulfill it. He says what he wants and then he says, oh God, give me what I want, all in this verse. So as we come to this verse, let's pray. Oh God, all of our hope is in you.

Every hope that we have that's not tied to you is such a shakeable, fallible, failing thing. Thank you that you are a rock that we can build our lives on so sure that your promises are sure that your eternal nature is unchangeable and so Our confidence is wrapped up in something that's so secure. Thank you for bringing us to this verse that sets you as our hope before our eyes. For our encouragement and help and strengthening. I pray all those things would happen today.

Oh, please encourage us, God. Please help us. Please strengthen us today as we look at this verse, phrase by phrase. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well let me reread the verse again and then talk about it.

Romans 15 verse 13, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Paul begins with a device the commentators call a wish prayer. I don't love that. Wish seems like such a weak word. You think Paul is wishing? I don't think Paul is wishing at all.

But the commentators, What they're trying to communicate by calling this device a wish prayer is that Paul is using a literary technique where the author can accomplish two things at one time. So he's killing two birds with one stone. He's expressing a desire. He's saying what he wants and he's calling on God to give it. So this is what he does.

Now may the God of hope fill you. He's saying what he wants and he's calling on God to give him what he wants. What is the desire? What does Paul want God to do? He wants God to fill the believers in Rome with all joy and peace and believing.

We don't believe scripture is just for the immediate people who were the recipients of the letter. We think it was for us too. So we think this is for us too, that Paul wants God to fill not just the believers in Rome, but me as a believer in 2024, you as a believer in 2024 with all joy and peace in believing. And notice Paul has already done this once in the same chapter. Look back to verse 5.

So you're going to see Paul doing the same thing, another wish prayer, that's a weak word, what should we call it, I don't know, not that. Killing two birds with one stone, expressing what he wants and calling on God to do it in verse 5. Verse 5, now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another. So there he says exactly what he wants and he's calling on God to give him what he wants. He's already done this.

In Paul's expression of this desire, he gives God a title. So Paul's handing out a title to God here, the God of hope. In verse 5, it was the God of patience and comfort. So as Paul expresses these desires, he's addressing these desires to God by title. He does it in verse 5, calling on the God of patience and comfort to give patience and comfort in our verse, verse 13 calling on the God of hope to give hope.

Listen to what Matthew Henry says. Matthew Henry says, �It is good in prayer to fasten upon those names, titles and attributes of God which are most suitable to the errand we come upon and will best serve to encourage our faith concerning it. So what is what is Matthew Henry saying here? He's saying learn these titles and use them. So the Bible actually gives us titles for God and they're really they're really helpful.

They don't make God different than He is, but they explain who God is and we should learn the titles for use so that we can use them. Why would we do that? Because they help us and they honor God. Isn't that true? Doesn't it help you when you're going to God for hope to know that God is the God of hope.

So if that's, Matthew Henry says, if that's the errand you're on, take the title with you. You know you need hope, so, and you know God is the God of hope, Well call Him that. God, here I am. I don't feel about the future like I know I should feel about the future. I need hope.

You are the God of Hope. You take the title with you on your errand and you use the title not because it changes who God is, but because it increases your confidence in knowing that He's the God of Hope, as the God of Hope can give you what you need. That's what Matthew Henry is driving at. I think it's a very good point. Now let's ask and answer a couple of questions.

What is hope? We've talked about this recently so I don't need to belabor the point, but in the New Testament, Hope is a confident expectation of the future, not wishful thinking. In our modern vernacular, we often use hope as wishful thinking, but in the New Testament, it's always a confident expectation of the future. It hasn't happened yet, but you know it will happen because of who God is and what God has said. There's no uncertainty.

It's this confident expectation that because God is this way and because He said this, the future will hold this for me. Next, in what way is God the God of hope? In what way is God the God of hope? In two ways. First, God is the object of hope.

There are all sorts of false religions. There's not one religion in the world, there's many religions in the world. There are all sorts of false religions and all sorts of false hopes. Has it ever happened that anyone has hoped for something that they're crazy to hope for? It's just not going to happen.

It happens all the time. There are false hopes. So hope in and of itself is nothing. Hope is not magical. Hope is not powerful.

Hope in and of itself is nothing. Hope is not magical. Hope is not powerful. Hope in and of itself is nothing. What are you hoping in?

That something or nothing, depending on what the object, the termination point of the hope is. Do you have any reason for confidence in what you're hoping in? All of our hopes have an object. You got any reason for confidence in that? Now I want you to listen to Hebrews chapter 6.

We'll be there for a minute if you want to go yourself. You can go to Hebrews chapter 6. But I want to read Hebrews 6, 13-19, and you'll immediately see, hope is used in the passage, but you'll immediately see what the connection is here. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 13-19. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you.

And so, after Abraham had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil. God wants to show us that His promises are unchangeable and unbreakable.

So this is true of the promises of God. When He makes a promise, you can know He will not change it. He won't take it back. Oh, things have changed. I promised, but I'm not going to do that now because things have changed.

I'm taking it back. God doesn't do that. He always knew what was coming, so circumstances can't change His mind about His promises. They are unchangeable and they're unbreakable. In other words, whenever He issues a promise, It will be fulfilled.

Who could stop Him? Who could stop God from fulfilling His promise? So He won't change it and no one can keep Him from fulfilling it. When He says He'll do it, He absolutely will do it, you will see it fulfilled if He promised it to you. It is unchangeable, it is unbreakable.

So to show that that's true, He speaks them and he swears to fulfill them, two things in which it is impossible for him to lie. When he says he'll do it, it is because he's God and because of what is like his eternal attributes, it is impossible for him to say that he'll do it and that turn out to be a lie. It will never turn out to be a lie. And to give you extra confidence, he's willing to swear that he'll do it. So these two immutable things, these two unchangeable things.

I said it and I swore that I would follow through on it. And it is impossible for Him to lie and this is all for our benefit. Does God have to swear it for it to be true? No, but when he says, I promise this and I swear to you I'll fulfill the promise, he knows it gives us extra confidence. It gives us extra strength to be able to hold on with confidence to His promises.

And so He's willing to do that for us because of our weakness. Isn't that amazing? That God would not only say it, but that He'll swear by it just so that We'll know that there's no way he's backing out of these things. Now, what does this do for me? It is an anchor for my soul.

It is an anchor for my soul. Ever been in a storm? Literally or figuratively, you pick, it doesn't matter. Ever been in a storm? Ever felt like, oh, the waves are going to sweep me away.

We've all felt like that. No, no, no. God saying these things and swearing by himself that He'll fulfill every one of His promises is to me an anchor for my soul, both sure and steadfast. It is an anchor for your soul both sure and steadfast. We are not hoping in something that can fail.

We are hoping in the promises that God has sworn to and He cannot lie. That's what we're hoping in and that just anchors us. That allows us to ride out the storms. Because, by the way, another thing the Bible says is he's going to send storms. But he gives you an anchor for it.

He gives you something that will keep you from being swept away by the storm, both sure and steadfast, and anchor for your soul. God cannot lie. So first, God is the object of hope. And Second, God is the source of hope. He's the object of it.

Your hope is terminating on Him and He can't lie. So far, so great. Second, God is the source of hope. We need hope. It is the anchor for our souls.

Paul is telling us where to go for it. There is an object of hope, but you need to go there for it. He is also the source of hope. Go to the God of hope, says Paul. You need hope?

You need an anchor for your soul? Me too. Where should we go for it? We go to the God of hope for it. Matthew Henry tells us, take the title with you.

Take the title with you. He's the source of hope. He can give you hope. He's the God of hope. So go to God for the hope that you need.

What is Paul asking the God of hope to do? To fill believers with all joy and peace in believing. Look at the words. Fill. All.

Not ration a little. Oh, I've got a joy jar and a peace jar. I can give you a little out of the joy jar and a little out of the peace jar, but Others need joy and peace too, so I can't give you too much because I don't want the joy jar to run out or the peace jar to run out. No, no, no. God has an ocean without bottom or shore of joy and an ocean without bottom or shore of peace.

And He can give me all the joy to popping and all the peace to popping for all of us and not have His resources diminished. So He can fill me, fill me. Okay, not ration out a little of the joy and the peace to Jason. Here's your allotment from the jar. God's not like that.

God's not limited like that. He can fill me with all joy and peace. Paul is asking the God of hope to fill believers with all joy and all peace in believing. Now Let's take this bit by bit and let's keep in mind the abundance that Paul is calling for. That it's not a joy jar and a peace jar, but it's a joy ocean and a peace ocean.

The ocean doesn't have a bottom or shore. He can burst us. He can fill us to bursting with both and not be diminished at all. First understand that in believing is the key. So it's all joy and peace in believing.

That last phrase, in believing is the key. Believing, faith, is the fertile soil out of which Joy and peace grow. So think of joy and peace as the plants. What are they growing out of? They're growing out of the very fertile soil of believing or faith.

I'm using those interchangeably. Have you ever been to Lowe's and bought that Miracle Grow potting soil? Is there anything more magical in this world than Miracle Grow potting soil? And you can tell just when you open it up, it's so black and rich, You know when a seed goes into that thing that the seed is going to get all that it needs and you are going to get growth on steroids. It is the soil equivalent of steroids.

Miracle-Gro potting soil. Where am I? Miracle-Gro potting soil. There we are. Believing faith is that to joy and peace.

Miracle-Gro potting soil to joy and peace. They grow, joy and peace grow in the fertile soil of faith, of looking to God for what we need. And stopping our looking to other things for what we need. So we take our eyes off those other things that so often disappoint us and we look to heaven where Christ is and this is fertile soil for joy and peace. But just like it is the object of hope, not hope itself that matters, right?

It is the object of faith, not faith itself that matters. There's all sorts of faith in the world that's misplaced faith. So just like hope needs to be in an object that won't fail you, faith needs to be in an object that won't fail you. And that object that won't fail you is Jesus or God in three persons. Believing In God, the Bible says God is this, I believe it.

And His promises, in the Bible God has said this, I believe it. Believing in God and His promises, faith in God and His promises, trust in God and His promises is the fertile soil for joy and peace. When our confident expectations are in God and our confident expectations are in what He has said to us, we are filled up with all joy. Not a highly volatile, giddy happiness that is at the mercy of my circumstances. There might be a place for giddy happiness, but this isn't what Paul is talking about.

That's a subject for another day, an argument for another day. He's not talking about a giddy happiness that is at the mercy of circumstances. This is a joy that is not at the mercy of any circumstance. And sometimes the worse the circumstances, the more the joy. So giddy happiness is in exactly the opposite direction.

The worse the circumstances, the less the happiness just evaporates and there's misery in its place. All based on hormones, whether I got food on time, whether I had good night's sleep, whether things are going well at work or poorly at work. The Giddy happiness is so volatile, it just evaporates like that. This is not what Paul is talking about. Paul is talking about a solid, consistent joy that can flourish even in the most difficult circumstances.

Because we find God to be satisfying even in the middle of the storm, especially in the middle of the storm. Sometimes our joy is greater when things are not good, circumstantially. It's an inverse relationship to giddy happiness. We find that God really is a promise keeper. When?

When the sun is shining and everything's perfect? Is that when you find God to be a promise keeper? Well, sort of, but more so when you find yourself sustained in really difficult circumstances. Isn't that when we find God is a promise keeper, true to His word, sustaining His people, never leaving us or forsaking us, just like He said He would never leave us or forsake us. Things that God has said like what?

Let me give you two just from Romans chapter 8. Things like Romans chapter 8, 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." What if you grabbed a hold of that and really believed it? That our present hardships, which loom so large, they take up all of our vision. Our present hardships so often are the panorama, horizon to horizon, all we see and feel are present hardships.

But if we can actually believe what God is saying here, that these present sufferings, present hardships, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. How would we feel? How would we think? What would we do in the middle of our present hardships if we were really convinced all the way in our core that these things aren't even worth being compared with the future that God is holding in us. And He cannot lie.

He has said it and He has sworn it. And by these two immutable things we have an anchor for our soul, sure and steadfast. Amen. Things like Romans 8 28, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. So that when God does bring difficulties, hardships into our lives, we know God, according to your Word, and you can't lie, you are weaving all these things together and in the end I'll look back and say, oh that was so good.

It's so hard right now, but I know I'm gonna be able to look back and say, oh that was so good. So all these hopes are not future. This is a really important point. Christians aren't just people who slog through life hoping that after death something good will happen. No way!

Many of our hopes have to do with this life and God's goodness to us in this life. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God in this life, to those who are the called according to His purpose in this life. When our confident expectations are in God and what He has said to us, we are filled up with all peace. Filled up not just with all joy, but filled up with all peace. Not tranquility that comes from any lack of hardship.

You've probably had a season of this in your life. At the moment, knock on wood, at the moment, everything seems to be going great. That's not what Paul is talking about. Tranquility that comes from a lack of any hardship, but disappears with any hardship. If you've been in one of those seasons, you know they don't last forever.

Ah, things are so tranquil right now. Really, in all the categories of my life, I really don't have any big headwinds in any category of my life? Okay, that's not going to last. And when it doesn't last, what happens then? Okay, so did you just have a tranquility that resulted from not having any headwinds?

Or is it what Paul is actually talking about here? The peace of God and the peace with God that surpasses all understanding. That's Philippians 4.7, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. So it's the peace of God, God gave it, and it's peace with God. The biggest thing in your life is settled.

When you have peace with God, the biggest thing in your life has settled. And the other things, the other problems shrink when that happens. Isn't that true? When you know, I got all sorts of problems, but really the fundamental problem is, I'm a sinner and there's a holy God. When that gets settled, all the other problems shrink.

Praise God for that. Doesn't mean that they're small, but they do shrink when your biggest problem is settled, when you have peace with God and the peace of God. God gives you peace that can flourish even in the midst of hardship. Now, why does it surpass all understanding? It's the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, meaning when you've used up all of your understanding and it still doesn't make sense, you still have it.

No one can figure out why you have it. You can't even figure out why you have it, but you have it. It surpasses all understanding. Why does it surpass all understanding? Because no one can see the potting soil.

No one can see the Miracle Grow potting soil that this piece is growing up out of because it's belief, it's Trust in God. God has shown himself to you to be trustworthy and convinced you that you know that you know that you know that God can't lie and he's trustworthy. No one can see this. People can only see your outward circumstances. So the people in your life, your family, your friends, your coworkers, your neighbors say, she should be freaking out.

They can't see the potting soil that your piece is growing out of. You've been filled with all peace in believing. It's the potting soil that this flower is growing out of. It is your believing. God has convinced you.

You believe. Now Paul gives us the purpose that, may the God of peace, may the God of hope fill you with all peace and believing that believers may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the purpose. So the believers could abound in this hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The word translated abound in the New King James, that you may abound in hope, is translated overflow in the NIV, that you may overflow with hope.

Both are perfectly good translations. Here's what the Greek lexicon says of this Greek word that's being translated. To exceed a fixed number of measure. To be left over and above a certain number or measure. So you have a fixed number, the amount has been determined, and you exceed it.

Or there's a certain number or measure and you have leftover above that. That's why the NIV says overflow. It's as good as abound in terms of translation. I like bringing them together, just thinking of this in terms of both of them. This confident expectation, this hope, can abound or can overflow.

So you have The fixed measure, the jar that holds 10 ounces and you got 15 ounces, what happens? It just runs over the top. This is the idea of this hope. It's just running over. It's more than you need, it's more than you can contain, it's more than it's called for, it just runs over the top.

You've got a unit of measure of 10 and He gives you 15. It just runs over. How can this be? By the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 14 verse 16, Jesus said He would ask His Father to give the disciples another helper.

So Jesus is saying, I'm going away and I'm going to ask my Father to send you another helper. I've been your helper, but when I leave, my Father will send you another helper. Sometimes it's translated, advocate, one who pleads on your behalf, or comforter, one who comes and brings you comforter. The literal translation for that word, helper or advocate or comforter, is one who comes alongside. God's going to send someone alongside you.

Only, they'll always be alongside you. This other helper isn't going to come and go this other Advocate who is pleading your case isn't going to be one who sometimes does and sometimes doesn't. This comforter who comes as a source of comfort isn't going to be, he comforts you sometimes, and he doesn't comfort you sometimes. No, no, no, he's going to come alongside you and stay alongside you. In the very next verse, verse 17, John 14, 17, Jesus said that this helper would dwell in the believer, take up residence in the believer, not coming and going, but dwelling in an ongoing way in the believer.

In Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church in fulfillment of that. Jesus asked for it and the Father granted Jesus' request. And now, one of the Holy Spirit's functions is to infuse believers with more faith and with more hope, so that they would have more joy and more peace. Now it is one of the functions of the Holy Spirit to give believers more faith and more hope so that they would have the flowers that grow out of that, the more joy and more peace. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that can cause you to overflow with hope.

You want to overflow with hope? I want to overflow with hope. You want to overflow with a confident expectation of what tomorrow holds, and next year holds, and the next decade holds, and what God has in store for you after you die. Yes! You want to overflow with that.

It's going to have to be the power of the Holy Spirit. When you abound in hope, you are filled with all joy and peace in believing. You have this faith that is the fertile soil for all joy and peace in believing. Let me give you four applications. Four applications.

Number one. When we pray, privately, and when we're together, when we pray, let's start to sometimes use the titles of God. When we're on an errand in prayer that has to do, to use Matthew Henry's language, when we're on an errand that has to do with one of those titles of God, let's go to God with his title. From our current chapter, God of Patience and Comfort, God of Hope, those would be good titles to sometimes start bringing to God when we're on an errand for patience and comfort, when we're on an errand for hope. And there's more titles, and there are more errands.

Let's mine out the titles of God and start to sometimes, I'm not making a rule here, there's nothing wrong if we just address God as God, but it might help us. We might find that it helps us to pray with faith when we bring God's title to God for hope, for patience and comfort, and on and on. And we know it will honor God. Do you think God is honored when we say, God we need hope. You're the God of hope.

That sounds like a God honoring prayer to me. So I think it will help me when I pray and I think it will honor God when I pray and both those things are good, let's do that sometimes. Two, start praying this for your brethren by name. So here's your homework. I know I can never enforce the homework, but sometimes I try to give you some homework.

I'm gonna try it today Like scratch down a couple of names you're gonna pray verse 13 for those names that you've scratched down. Now may the God of Hope, Phil Jason, start your list with my name. Start your list with James's name, too. Put it put us at the top of the list. Why would I say that?

Do you think it benefits you when I am filled with all joy and peace and believing and abound in hope. Do you think that has any impact on my labors here? So like we always say, a prayer for the preacher is a prayer for yourself. You pray for the preacher, he might be more concise, he might be more helpful. So pray for him.

He might have shorter sermons. Pray for him! Start praying this for your brethren by name. Now may the God of hope fill Janet with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." She was whispering. She thought I was calling her out.

Three, Consider your ability to influence this. In other words, you do anything about this, Paul prayed for us, we could pray for each other. Do we have any other levers we could pull to get more versus less of this? And the answer is yes, actually. Let's be Calvinists, not hyper-Calvinists.

What would a hyper-Calvinist say? A hyper-Calvinist would say, God's going to do what He's going to do. We should just patiently submit to it. I can't influence this. God's sovereign.

He decided in eternity past how all this is going to work out. So my job is just to submit patiently to whatever happens. God's going to do what He's going to do. That's what a hyper Calvinist would say. What would a Calvinist say?

A Calvinist would say, what does the Bible say? Now, did John Calvin always get it right? No, he didn't. I think there are some areas where he didn't get it right. But what you find John Calvin doing is driving the Lord's people back to the Lord's Word.

And his arguments, the things that he's advocating for, he's using texts of Scripture for it. A Calvinist doesn't say, God's going to do what he's going to do, so it's our job to just patiently submit to it. A Calvinist says, let's go to the book. What does the book say? The book says Luke 11 verse 13.

Listen to Luke 11 verse 13 and then consider the impact on our topic. Luke 11 13. Jesus says, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So our verse is about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is saying you can have more or less depending on if you ask or don't ask. Now does that mean unless you ask the Holy Spirit isn't indwelling you if you're a believer?

I don't think that means that at all. But is it possible that you don't have more of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life because you don't ask for it? You don't have because you don't ask? That is not only possible, it's consistent with what Jesus is saying in Luke 11 verse 13. Jesus is saying, you awful parents are inclined to give good to your children.

God is not an awful parent. He is even more inclined to give the Holy Spirit and all the good that the Holy Spirit can bring into your life to those who will. It's yours for the asking. God says it's yours for the asking. So can we have an influence on whether the God of hope fills us with all joy and peace and believing?

Because yes, because it comes by the power of the Holy Spirit And Jesus is saying we can have more or less. It's ours for the asking we should be asking. Consider your ability to influence this. Finally, four, a thought experiment in the form of a question. How would I live if I could shed these fears and insecurities?

You got any fears? I have fears. How would I think, talk, live if I could shed these fears? Because they're really the opposite of hoping in God. I should have this confident expectation that even in hardships, God's working all things together for my good because I'm called according to his purposes.

I believe that of myself. I believe that God has saved me, and if God has saved me, then that's true. My fears are a failure to grab hold of that and really believe it. Do I have insecurities? You better believe it.

You have insecurities? You better believe it. How would we talk, think, act if we didn't have these fears and insecurities? Well, Paul is trying to help us with all that. We would live boldly for the Lord.

We would present our bodies a living sacrifice if we could just get rid of these fears and insecurities. By the mercies of God, with all the mercies of God in the background, we would look to Him and we would present our bodies, we would offer our lives back to Him as a living sacrifice if we could just get rid of some of these fears and insecurities. Paul is telling us how we would think and speak and act, or how we can speak, think, and act differently. Let's pray. God, I want this.

I thank you that Paul expresses this desire and then calls on you for it. I want this for myself, I want this for us, and I want to call on you for it too. You are the God of hope. You do have a bottomless ocean without shore for joy, for peace, that grows out of the fertile soil of just trusting you and trusting ourselves to you. Oh fill us God, fill us, please fill me, please fill us with these things.

Show yourself to be true in all the promises that you've made. Give us such supreme confidence, give us an anchor for our soul, both sure and steadfast, God, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.